User:MaddieCaroline/sandbox

Personal Life and Death
Cromien maintained many interests and hobbies outside of his career. It was once remarked that when he was not serving on boards, he could be found reading at home, swimming, or birdwatching.

Cromien was an amateur naturalist who maintained a lifelong passion for ornithology. He was once arrested in Romania in 1981, alongside his friend Tom Kilbane, for "pointing a telescope at a guarded power plant" in pursuit of sighting rare birds. He regarded fellow Irish naturalist and librarian Robert Lloyd Praeger as his hero. Like Praeger, Cromien catalogued many species of Irish plants and animals. He notably co-authored an article with James P. O’Connor about monarch butterfly sightings in Ireland for the Bulletin of the Irish Biogeographical Society.

Along with his interest in natural history, Cromien enjoyed cars. It is said that his favourite was the Triumph Stag.

Cromien was also a member and president of the Half Moon Swimming and Water Polo Club, and often swam with them at Dublin’s Great South Wall.

Cromien was considered an eloquent writer and speaker. He read widely and was especially fond of the poetry of William Butler Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh. He penned a biography of James J. McElligott for the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Cromien never married, and was regarded by others as being married to his work in the Department of Finance. Cromien died peacefully in Glasnevin on 6 August, 2018 at age 89 after a years-long battle with dementia. His funeral was held at St Brigid’s Church in Killester, and was attended by many civil servants, including the former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. He is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery.

Cromien is generally remembered as a polite and likeable intellectual who worked his way up from a modest beginning to become a well-respected civil servant.